Psychiatric nurses shift national election, name 5-man Caretaker C’ttee

The Association of Psychiatric Nurses of Nigeria (APNON) has named a five man caretaker committee after an election into its national body failed to hold at the delegate conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The psychiatric nurses had converged on Abeokuta for a three-day national delegate conference tagged “Ogun 2022,” where election of the new national executives was to be held.

But on Friday, the General Secretary of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), T.A Shettima, told delegates of the APNON that the election could not be held, citing lack of membership cards, payment and improper constitution of the delegates as the reason.

Shettima represented by Mrs Ofere Oluwatoyin told the gathering that the leadership of the NANNM leadership had directed that the election could not hold, rather a five-man caretaker committee be put in place to midwife democratically elected executives within the three months.

Our correspondent reports that the position threw the conference floor into confusion for hours as many delegates insisted that the election must go ahead having screened and cleared contestants.

They also insisted that shifting the election would be unfair to delegates who have travelled from different parts of the country with the risk of insecurity and bad roads.

It took the intervention of the leaders of the association to pacify some angry delegates to agree and announce the caretaker committee.

The representative of the NANNM General Secretary immediately dissolved Mohammed Sani Haruna-led executives upon expiration of their tenure and inaugurated a five man caretaker committee chaired by Onunka Godspower.

Other members are Ushingid Godwin Adede (Secretary), Aminu Garba (Financial Secretary), Fatima A Abdullahi (Treasurer) and Maryam Gali Bongor (Auditor)

Shettima told the committee members that “Your responsibility is to organize democratically elected officials that will pilot the affairs of APNON in Nigeria.”

In his remarks, the Caretaker Committee Chairman promised that the interim leadership “will resolve this issue amicably because we are the only people who use our brains to fix other people’s brains. ”

He also promised that the committee would conduct a free and fair election within the next three months.

In his remarks, Haruna who is the immediate past National Chairman, said during his administration he promoted visibility of APNON on the national and mental issues across the country and led campaigns against drug addiction

He added during his administration “APNON was able to harmonise institutional rifts in our health facilities unlike other professionals, leading to peaceful co-existence between mental health nurses and other health teams nationwide.”